the excavators and dozer at the county public works project site that were vandalized, last weekend, to no one's surprise, were wrecked by a former employee of the excavation company

Guthrie has a long criminal record, Robinson said, with 25 arrests in the past 20 years. (It really can't be so damn hard to find guys willing to operate dozers and excavators, that you hire someone whose been arrested 25 times already!! 

JFC, just TRAIN people to operate the gear, it ain't that effing hard, nearly everyone born since 1975 has played video games and has dual hand to eye coordination and can learn)

Included in establishing the timeline was footage from an Arkansas State Police trooper who wrote a ticket to Guthrie the night of the vandalism after a traffic accident, Robinson said. That allowed investigators to establish a timeline as Guthrie was on his way back to his Cabot home. It also showed Guthrie being muddy and wet, as were the conditions where the vandalism took place.

Records show Guthrie is still in custody in the Saline County Detention Center.

County Judge Matt Brumley said the damage to the area was extensive and not just to the equipment but the fuel and hydraulic fluid that was spilled into the creek, forcing the county to “abate the damage.”

the county’s Office of Emergency Management was successful in containing the spill and protecting nearby homes, but the final costs for equipment repair or replacement and environmental damage will range from $500,000 to $750,000, and a one-month delay in the project.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/saline-county-deputies-construction-equipment-175818663.html

they buried a 550 John Deere dozer, and ripped the cab off one excavator and buried it with another. The reward is around 64k for the info that leads to the conviction of the people that did this to James A Rogers Excavating in Arkansas

Anyone with information about what happen Friday night 5-23 between Vimy Ridge rd and North Sardis

call 501-455-2439 and saline county sheriff’s office at (501) 303-5609

https://www.facebook.com/jarexcavating

I think I must have posted excavators using roller skates before, but if you've never seen it....

A crew refreshes lane striping on the Yolo Causeway in 1939

 

Found in a magazine of Caltrans, online. I had no idea Caltrans has a magazine

https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/risk-strategic-management/documents/mm-2016-q2-a11y.pdf

A special edition compact track loader from CASE was at the Helping Hands charity concert, organized by Metallica’s All Within My Hands charitable foundation.

The winning design was submitted by John Piper, a rising design talent at CNH. 

Piper crafted a concept that recalled one of Hetfield’s tattoos, a skull with wings, together with the sharp iconic font reminiscent of his band’s graphics and album artwork.

 He also drew from the pinstriping in Hetfield’s private hotrod collection. All these elements were integrated atop a sandy camouflage pattern reminiscent of Hetfield’s signature Snakebyte electric guitar – a direct request from the artist.

https://www.casece.com/en-us/northamerica/inside-case/articles/2024/cnh-designs-special-edition-case-compact-track-loader-inspired-by-metallica-frontman-james-hetfield

Volvo's entire product range in 1973.

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=8535163266538062&set=gm.1215867093051870&idorvanity=435603497744904

I've never seen an excavator that's been sitting around unused so long it gets graffitied

and why the hell is balloon font so damn hard to read? I can't make out a single letter

Bill Deutsch has what could be the only one of its kind left, a 1930s prototype of the Trackson Traxcavator attachment on an International I-30 tractor, called the International TracTracTor.

Bill Deutsch uses a lot of the machines in his operations as the owner of Deutsch Excavating in Northfield, Minnesota. That includes 1950s-era cable Cat dozers, scrapers and motor grader.

Using the vintage Cats came about from a need for bigger equipment during the Great Recession, when he didn’t have enough money to buy new or even operable used ones.

Since then, he’s grown to love the pre-hydraulics machines, appreciating their history, unique feel and simplicity.

“It's old-fashioned mechanics,” he says. “It's a joy to work with because it's virgin steel. There's no garbage in it like we have today.”

“It is the simplicity of it,” he adds. “If it doesn't work, it's because there's literally something broken, not because there's a broken wire or sensor.”

About eight years ago, Deutsche saw a photo of the TracTracTor prototype with the Trackson Traxcavator on an online equipment chatroom. He didn’t know anything about the owner other than the town where he lived. So he drove around the town trying to find the building in the photo.

“And that's how I found the guy and pulled in the driveway and knocked on a door and asked him questions, and we were right,” Deutsche says. “I’ve had some pretty good luck doing that kind of thing.”

Turns out the owner had bought the prototype tractor by accident. He thought he was bidding on a different one at auction but mistakenly bought the tractor next to it.

“It didn't fit his collection. He's a John Deere guy,” Deutsch says. “He was willing to sell it to me because I have a better Trackson collection.”

The three prototypes were sent to iron mines in northern Minnesota to be tested. International eventually sent a truck to pick up the prototypes, but only two of the prototypes fit on the truck. So one stayed at the mine and over time went to auction, then ended up with Deutsch. 

 Bill Deutsch built this 50-year-old D6C using parts from two of the vintage dozers, which he still runs for Deutsche Excavating, along with 1950s Cat pull-type scrapers.

Deutsch’s hobby of finding and restoring vintage equipment became a necessity during the Great Recession when his excavating company – of which he is the sole owner, operator and employee – fell on hard times.

He had formed the company in 2000 and was doing well. But in 2007-2008, like most of the construction industry, things took a drastic turn for the worse.

“I needed some bigger machinery, and I didn't have a ton of money to spend,” he recalls.

He uses his Cat No. 12 motor grader to plow snow each year for a nearby town.

“It is the main piece of my winter income – from 1958,” he says and chuckles.

“People don't know how old it is. They know it's older because a lot of my stuff is older. But they don't have a clue that it's almost 70-some-odd years old. It still looks nice.”

https://www.equipmentworld.com/collectors-corner/article/15684159/contractor-saves-rare-traxcavators-runs-vintage-cat-equipment

The world headquarters of JCB is a very cool looking place, with a nice display of construction equipment scattered around

 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-qIstnppyy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I can't find a you tube video of it though

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To firefighters across California, the threat of tires to blow out in a fire, was essentially unheard of ... until June 14th, when Andrew Pontious, was killed while battling a front end loader fire, and a 7 foot tall tire exploded due to heat

https://www.firehouse.com/safety-health/news/55136306/exploding-tire-that-killed-los-angeles-county-firefighter-was-rare

https://www.firehouse.com/lodds/video/55089092/veteran-los-angeles-county-firefighter-killed-in-explosion

I'm probably not the only one that remembers the cages at SEMA for inflating earthmover tires safely to prevent one from exploding... https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2012/11/earthmover-tire-inflation-cage-proof-of.html 

skip the first 25 seconds, get right to it

I've never seen a Unimog that was optioned up like this... as a Small Emplacement Excavator

 
This 1989 Freightliner Unimog FLU419 is a former US military vehicle that was overhauled in 2010 at the Red River Army Depo

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1989-freightliner-unimog-flu419-4

I never heard of the HG Fenton company until this past month...

He began his working life as a poor, seven-year-old ranch hand in the San Pasqual Valley. He amassed a fortune by taking on large contracts for public improvements, related to streets, jetties and even the Tijuana Racetrack.

As a young man, he came to the San Diego area and homestead a track of land at San Pasqual. There he met Arnold Babcock, older son of Elisha S. Babcock Jr., builder of the Hotel del Coronado, who introduced him to his father.

 Elisha Babcock gave Fenton a job driving a hunting coach to North Island and Point Loma. Fenton received rapid promotion and was placed in charge of the hotel’s building operations, which included the Western Salt Works at the head of San Diego Bay. Mr. Fenton entered into the construction business for himself in 1905 and was successful from the start. 

In 1905 he was made foreman of the Coronado Jetty construction project, and the profits from that set the HG Fenton construction company in business.

He worked for 18 months on the government jetty (Zuniga) off North Island. He was awarded the largest contract given out under the Vrooman Act doing all the street improvements west of Orange Avenue for a total cost of $324,000. which was completed in one year. He granted liberal discounts to the property owners for cash payment with the result that little of the cost went to bond.

Elisha Babcock and Heny Fenton remained close friends until Babcock’s death in September 1922. When Babcock was no longer able to manage his own affairs, Fenton bought the Western Salt Works and provided for the Babcocks for the rest of their lives.

He then purchased Jamul Ranch, which eventually became Eastlake. He owned a 3200 acre ranch at San Pasqual, and a 2000 acre ranch in Otay

Mr. Fenton also did much of the grading for the Tijuana Racetrack (circa 1915) using 20 muleteams. In 1915, Mr. Fenton secured a lease from A. Levi for a 9,000 acre ranch in Jamul where he raised cattle and beef for market. Mr. Fenton owned a 2,000 acre ranch at Bernardo (now Rancho Bernardo) where he specialized in alfalfa and dairy products. 

The HG Fenton Material Company was formed in 1928

the H.G. Fenton Co. evolved from salt and gravel mining operations that helped build Qualcomm Stadium to become one of San Diego County's largest real estate organizations with more than 3 million square feet of office and industrial space and 11 apartment communities totaling over 2,800 homes.

Henry Gilbert Fenton was born on 22 July 1872, in San Francisco, he married Emily Bowen in 1901. 

They lived in San Diego and Escondido. He died on 25 August 1951 at the age of 79

https://hgfenton.com/our-story/

https://docs.sandiego.gov/council_reso_ordinance/rao2006/R-301970.pdf

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117372298/henry-gilbert-fenton

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CJ19840823.2.67&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-times-advocate-obituary-for-h-g/85448803/

And I find it suspicious that such a wealthy, historic, and company founder has no wikipedia page. Almost like the company that has his name doesn't want his thorough and complete history on a public website like wikipedia.  https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/07/05/a-wealthy-familys-100-year-old-company-is-blocking-a-permanent-housing-project-for-homeless-people/

terrific excavator video

 https://www.tumblr.com/armengoldira/752643987551174656?source=share

Bangalore, the capital of India's southern state, and the center of India's high-tech industry, has ONE intersection that was such a bad idea, it regularly takes 30 minutes to get through, on a good day, not during rush hour, when its a couple of hours... much like the international crossing from TiJuana to San Diego. But a 7 year long project has finally been completed to rectify the situation with a double decker 4 lane highway

the cost was 450 Crores. A crore is 10 million of something, so = 4.5 billion rupees = 53 million dollars for 3.3 kilometers = 2 miles... really, not a bad price for an elevated 4 lane highway and double wide train line 

the amount of traffic is typical of enormous cities on the planet wide scale, 46,000 vehicles a day, 24,000 3 wheelers, sedans, and heavy haulers, 22,000 motorcyclers and scooters

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/inside-bengaluru-s-first-double-deck-flyover-how-it-could-transform-silk-board-jn-3096172

https://swarajyamag.com/infrastructure/how-bengalurus-double-decker-flyover-makes-the-dreaded-silk-board-commute-shorter-and-smoother

cool factory photo, would make a good garage poster

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/%28MINING-EQUIPMENT--BUCYRUS-ERIE-COMPANY%29-Binder-containing-a?saleno=2458&lotNo=343&refNo=734407

Caltrans has worked since January 2023 to remove material that spilled onto the highway at Paul’s Slide during a major storm, but will reopen next month

But the Central Coast highway that connects Carmel to Cambria won’t fully reopen yet. 

https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/caltrans-highway-1-big-sur-paul-slide-reopen-19493290.php

Ever see an image, and then get annoyed that they don't have it in the video, at all. The video doesn't ever show that scene... and I was hoping to see some of the tunneling!

Seriously, what a damn tease... I'd LIKE to see some of the tunneling going on! But, the situation in this scene! 

biggest tow truck I've ever seen

 https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2024/05/big-tow.html

believe it or not, I had a job interview that was prevented by road construction. Their HR rep doesn't believe me, obviously... however, I waited outside at my car for 3 friggin hours looking waiting for them to hopefully finish in time

Anyone around construction knows that this is about 4 hours of work. That was beyond my control, AND supposed to have been completed yesterday. Then this morning, and instead, it took place all afternoon

Murphy's Law, in full effect

This has almost nothing to do with wheels, it's the claw they'll be using to hoist debris out of the Port of Baltimore. But it is construction, and I do cover that.

A 200-ton salvage grab arrived in Sparrows Point over the weekend to clear wreckage from the bottom of the Patapsco River. The Dutch-made hydraulic grab has four independent claws that together can lift more than 1,000 tons. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

A massive hydraulic grab arrived in Baltimore over the weekend as officials planned a Thursday opening of the deepest alternate channel yet for vessels to travel through the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Officials plan to open the 35-foot channel for only a few days to let deeper-draft ships through. Traffic won’t be let through next week as crews enter the next stage of operations, which will involve lifting steel off of the cargo ship that struck the Key Bridge last month as well as using the grab to clear debris from the Baltimore harbor’s 50-foot shipping channel.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/04/23/key-bridge-channel-claw